Fifteen new cases in Loup Basin health district

Burwell, NE – Fifteen (15) new case were reported in Loup Basin Public Health Department’s (LBPHD) district since April 27th at 12:00 p.m. Patient information is considered protected health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and will not be provided to protect the patient’s privacy.

There is a total of 52 COVID-19 cases within the district as of Friday, May 1, 2020 at 3:00 p.m. The cases are in the following counties:

Custer – 29

Greeley – 2

Howard – 18

Sherman – 2

Valley – 1

There have been 500 negative COVID-19 tests received from commercial and public health laboratories. Three deaths have been reported in the district – all from Custer County.

“At the health department we continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation closely with all of our local partners,” states Charles Cone, Executive Director. “To continue to keep the number of COVID-19 cases as low as possible, the health department encourages everyone to continue following the practices of social distancing and wearing a mask whenever close contact of another individual is possible. If our numbers of positive cases have a dramatic increase, we would probably be guided to revert to stricter directed health measures. Let us all work together to help avoid that scenario. We can continue to have our health measures relaxed over time only if we continue to keep our numbers low. We can do it, but we need everyone to take this virus serious.”

An update to the Directed Health Measures (DHMs) will be effective May 4, 2020 at 12:00 a.m. The DHMs can be found LBPHD’s website at lbphd.org.